Thursday, October 02, 2014

3 More Ways You Can Promote Yourself Online for Job Search Success - without Social Media

Last week I talked about3 ways that you can promote yourselfonline when you are looking for a job without using social media. I think this is an important topic to address because not everyone likes social media and more importantly, not everyone knows how to use it properly. But there are many ways that you can promote yourself online when you are looking for a job.

Last week I talked about:

Creating an online profile page

Using you email signature

Joining forums or discussion groups

These are all important but I think the profile page is most important because that is the place that you are going to direct people back to in everything else that you do.

Now, let’s move on to talk about a few more ways that you can promote yourself online when you are looking for a job, without using social media.

Writing Guest Posts

If you are reading this blog you have likely learned that there are many other blogs out there that can be of interest for you. There are job search blogs and industry specific blogs and you can learn a lot from all of them.

What I want you to do is start keeping a list of blogs that are focused on the industry where you want to get a job. Look for 5-10 blogs and read them on a regular basis. Get a good feel for the tone and the language used in the blog. Browse through the archives and see what has been written in the past. Now, ask yourself, how can YOU add to the conversation? What opinions, ideas, or information can you add that would be of value to the blog’s readers? Start making a list of possible blog topics.

Find out which of these blogs accept guest posts. Some of them might have a link on the navigation that tells you that they do accept posts while others, you might need to contact. Once you find out which blogs are accepting guest posts get ready to write.

The research you did on the blog while you were reading (taking note of the tone, language, and topics previously covered) will help you choose a topic of your own. When you are writing remember:

Put your best effort into writing it.

Include headings and sub-headings for easier reading

Use bullet points or numbered lists.

Provide value!

The last point is perhaps the most important. If your blog post doesn’t provide any value, the owner of the blog will not be interested in publishing it.

Finally, when you write a blog post you usually get to include a bio. Make sure you take the time to create a bio that is interesting and states that you are seeking employment and a link to your profile page.

Write a Report

Report writing is a great way to reach a targeted audience. Reports can be anywhere from 10 pages and up and they provide detailed information on a specific topic. They should appeal to people that are currently working in the industry and they should demonstrate your knowledge and expertise.

Some examples of topics that would be good for free reports:

The top 10 trends in the ____ industry

How to show clients in the _____ industry that you offer more value

10 Ways to stand out amongst the competition

A comparison between ____ and _____

When you have written your report include your bio on the last page. You have a little more room here than you would in a bio that you have written for a guest post so include your best work here. You can tell them about your education, places you have published online, your social networks (if you use them), and of course, leave a link to your profile page!

What to do with your report once it is written

A report can be a great tool but it is useless if it doesn’t get into the right hands so you need to find ways to get that report out there. Contact bloggers and invite them to offer it to their readers or to their email lists. Email lists can be a great tool for reaching people but they take a lot of time to develop. Instead of worrying about building your own email list you can make use of others’ email lists by providing them with a free report that will provide value for their readers.

Sometimes bloggers have virtual products that they sell, too, like ebooks. You can offer your report to people who have a product to give away as a bonus. People like bonuses when they buy things so the blogger who has an ebook will love the fact that you are offering up your report for free.

You can also email it to your network and ask them to pass it on to anyone that they think might be interested. That guy you met at the job fair last month? I’ll bet he’d be pretty impressed to read your free report and if he likes it he’ll likely pass it on to his peers. Your uncle that works for a company you’d like to work for? He’ll likely be more likely to suggest that the Human Resources department contact you if he has something impressive like a free report to give them, too.

Article Marketing

Now that you have that free report you likely have several topics that can be broken down into smaller articles.

Write smaller articles on those topics and publish them on sites like Ezinearticles.com or InfoBarrel.com or HubPages.com. These sites allow you to leave links in the body of your article or in resource boxes that can be followed back to your profile page. Not only are people who read your article more likely to find you through your links, but when the search engines see that your profile page has links to it, they will see your page as being important. That means that your profile page is more likely to be found in the search engines.

Since Administrative Professionals are so involved with every aspect of the businesses they work for they need to have many skills. I...

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